gettin’ my goth on.
i’m having a depeche mode morning.
it started late last night…
so technically, i’m having a depeche mode half day.
right now, i have all their CD reissues spread out in the kitchen.
i’m eating breakfast, listening to ‘black celebration’
and wondering how i let myself miss this music
the first time around…
i think i just had a narrow view of greatness at the time.
plus, if your thing is van halen and def leppard…
depeche mode just do not rock enough.
neither do the smiths.
or echo & the bunnymen.
or the cocteau twins…
and since i didn’t really understand the importance of
melody in songs until about a year and a half ago…
this kind of music held very little for me as a kid.
martin gore’s melodies are bananas.
they are all rhythm. like keyboard parts.
it is all about where the notes are placed.
how much they hang behind or ahead of the beat.
“blasphemous rumors”. “enjoy the silence”… fuck!
it is blowing my mind right now…
the production on their early records still isn’t my thing
for me, it was only after ‘violator’ that they started to get
some swagger and sexiness into the music..
but seriously, the record is called “violator!”
how rad is that?!
and the artwork kills. beautiful.
and the structure of the songs…perfect.
total craft
i like martin gore’s voice best.
and how it mixes with dave gahan’s.
the harmonies on ‘here is the house’ are crushing.
if i had had even the slightest connection to my own
emotions as a kid, this music would have been sewn
into me. into my fabric.
records are experiences.
things to submerge into.
cause then… they save you.
like connecting to the right person,
just when you are needing them most.
June 4th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
“records are experiences.
things to submerge into.
cause then… they save you.
like connecting to the right person,
just when you are needing them most.”
I love this bit, because I think we can only appreciate music when we’re ready for it - there’s a resonance that’s required for that kind of connection - it feels like a big, audible “CLICK” to me. Something snapping into place. And I so totally dig it when it happens.
June 4th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
God I love the last sentence here! Matt you are spot on.
June 4th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Ditto what Katrina commented. I do believe when you are open at that time in your life, things that you passed over can suddenly fit and it’s a beautiful thing when it does. Timing is everything.
June 4th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
I’ve just gotten into your music - I like it very much! I like words that flow together and have meaning so you can get lost within them. Thank you for writing the songs - you capture something… that thing… when you hear it you know it. I would suggest that words save you as well.
June 4th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
“like connecting to the right person,
just when you are needing them most.”
…So poetic.
This is what makes you a great musician, a great songwriter, that understanding of the human spirit (at least as much as one can understand it, only being human himself).
It’s funny how our ‘taste’ in music changes as time goes on. As our hearts and minds change, so does our connection to music so change. As we are forever evolving, growing, twisting and becoming more complex, so do we demand that of what we feed ourselves spiritually.
If someone had told me when I was 16 that I wouldn’t spend the rest of my days pounding out Guns N Roses, I would have said they were utterly insane!! Lol (Course, when feeling forlorn, a little GNR still sometimes does the trick!)
Thanks love!
June 4th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Amen to that! I’m getting nostalgic…
June 4th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Def Leppard is my thing…but so is Matt Nathanson.
amen.
June 4th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
I grew up with all those bands that you mentioned… I am so happy to know that you are finally embracing them. I loved the last paragraph that you wrote… totally spoke to me. Your blog rocks… you rock… can’t wait to hear your new songs!
June 4th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
dude, you are too young to know depeche mode! ha!
love david gahan’s voice. huge when i was in college. i have seen them several times.
reach out and touch faith…l8r
June 4th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Albums like…………..Some Mad Hope?
June 5th, 2009 at 10:31 am
records are experiences.
things to submerge into.
cause then… they save you.
like connecting to the right person,
just when you are needing them most.
What about flipping this a bit? Say, that connection with the right person is not the destination, but the catalyst….A connection that you didn’t even realize you needed until you were already knee deep in a bottle of wine, finding answers to questions you didn’t even know you had…I’ve found a few new artists recently, you being one of them, who have opened up areas I didn’t know existed inside me. Your music’s been there, and I’d been missing out….but I didn’t realize that until I heard you…
So basically, thanks. You rock my soul.
June 5th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
i love the last part - records are experiences…
that is my life..
June 5th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
LOL I love your rambling posts…we need more of them. I’m always popping in to see if you updated.
I too am a Lep girl and a Matt girl.
Hope you get some time to catch a breath soon. Not until AFTER I see you in Saratoga tho. *-*
June 5th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Matty boy - This is what I’m talking about:
“Now Im not looking for absolution
Forgiveness for the things I do
But before you come to any conclusions
Try walking in my shoes
Try walking in my shoes
Youll stumble in my footsteps
Keep the same appointments I kept
If you try walking in my shoes”
Long time listener, first time caller - Bruce from Philly.
And yo, tell Flo I say wassup my niggah.
June 6th, 2009 at 9:54 am
It is amazing how your appreciation of music styles evolve over time as the world changes and as you grow as a person. Music provides connection, gives us identity and is the heartbeat of our spirit for all phases of our lives.
It is hard to believe that I have never traded, sold or tossed out any of my CD’s, cassettes, or records (I am dating myself!). I have thousands of them and still listen to them as it gives me the chance to go back to find Echo & the Bunnymen (I will find it!) and enjoy the moment. It allows us the ability to relive the past through music and brings back memories and feelings we thought we lost or forgot. Is there any other form of art that creates such a vivd connection with our soul and have us thirst for more?
Matt - I drink up the words, the music, the feelings you share and those which we aspire to obtain at some point in our lives. Keep on serving up your soul for us to enjoy. I’ll keep coming back for more and buy another round!
June 9th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Matt,
I love what you have to say about the music saving you. It has happened to me more than once. And can I just say, while Depeche Mode is blowing YOUR fucking mind you are blowing MY fucking mind. Your lyrics are ridiculous, and the music just adds to them. You are making history, I hope you are enjoying it.
And thanks for Some Mad Hope. It saved me
June 9th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Thanks for the great post and for putting a smile on my face tonight. Depeche Mode’s Black Celebration was my first concert. It was at Irvine Meadows, and I was 15. Spent the night at a Music+ (if you remember those brick and mortars) to get tickets. I think I nearly wore out the cassette tape. It was and remains a great album.
Think you’re a hoot, Matt! Appreciate the music, too . . . just about wearing out my iPod listening to your latest.
J
June 11th, 2009 at 6:36 am
I just downloaded your album because you are coming to Buffalo and I wanted to get into it before I saw you. I was having a shitty morning and then I read that last paragraph…put on your album and it turned my day around. I am a music teacher…I am going to share it with my kids today. Can’t wait to hear you play.
June 11th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
I have to break out those CDs every once in awhile, too. I only recently threw out the original cassette tapes that I was holding on to for so long. Oh the nostalgia. Those were the days when we weren’t called goth yet but ‘BAT CAVERS’
June 12th, 2009 at 12:17 am
i really agree, so 25 years ago never had any intention to listen to things like ‘come on get higher’. Thank ya for it and your Romeo and Juliet version.
June 19th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Matt~ Honestly I believe you and my hubby Ash (yes, like that guy in Evil Dead…who got fat and went onto Burn Notice…Bruce Campbell what happened?)were great friends in a past life or are destined to meet in the current one because you are so “all about us”…from my kid’s obsession with I Carly to van Helsing and now Depeche Mode…I saw them in concert in the 80′S!!! I’m old..over 40 now : and the comic book hero movie deal. Please come to New Jersey and join us for a barbeque and some random horror/comic movie/80’s trivia. You’ll be glad you did!!
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:24 pm
YEAH! DEF LEPPARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!As a matter of fact , I have to say , that the only time your cd “some mad hope” leaves my cd player is when it is on rotation with Def Leppard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!No, I knew you were a Def Leppard fan- I heard you sing “armaggeddon it” once!- very cool!!!!!!!!!!!!You rock Matt!!!!!!!!!!!
July 4th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
I started listening to DM in 1980. When I was 6. And I’ve never stopped.
You’re right, the harmonies in “Here is the House” I’ve always thought are amazing. And Martin’s voice is purer than Dave’s, but Dave’s got some crazy sexiness behind his. Black Celebration and beyond is the albums I think are great…the earlier ones are too cheerful.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
that last bit - the paragraph - speaks to me so much!
To be honest I found your last album when I needed it most, and then i just submerged myself in your complete discography. I had a Matt Nathanson month, like your Depeche Mode half-day. haha.
That’s the beauty of music. You could know you like a song, you could say you LOVE a song! but until it finds the right moment in your life, you’ll never really understand how every single inch of the music-the chord structure, the notes, the beat, the lyrics-mean to you until you really need them.
You’ll need them because you can finally understand everything about what the artist was feeling.
That right there is how music connects the world. That’s the beauty in it. and that’s why this is the one art form that is never going to die. Because we all need the feeling of being connected sometimes.
Thanks for making me feel like someone else gets it
xoxo
July 24th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Matt,
This is why I dig you so much!! I grew up in the same era as you did, I’m 38 and can totally relate to this!! I was wayyy too into Def Leppard, INXS, and Van Halen to appreciate Depeche Mode. I felt the same way about the Cure, the Smiths and Morrissey. I recently have rediscovered both (Depeche Mode and Morrissey)…and it is like a whole new world! Morrissey is an amazing lyricist and if I was only more in tune with my own feelings during those years, I would have worshipped him….or committed suicide! Just kidding…but there is beauty in the darkness and the “gothness” and “emo-ness”…yes, I said “emo-ness” of it all! Just happy that I am older and wiser and alive to relive it all again!! Pure bliss….
July 28th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
“and the structure of the songs…perfect.
total craft”. I completely agree. Gotta add U2 in there also. ‘Joshua Tree’ kept me awake at night. Songs like “Running to Stand Still” and “Mothers of the Disappeared” are crushing.
As for Depeche Mode; they are magical, and deep and heartbreaking.
I like your journal.
March 19th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
No excuses; one must leave comment after reading. That is what keeps the bloggers going besides many other things.